Elongated items such as garden tools of the garden shears or lopping shears type are generally displayed at the point of purchase on various pegboard arrangements. Typically, such tools are shipped in general purpose cartons adapted to receive a number of these items. These cartons are kept in inventory until it is desired to stock the items at the point of purchase. At that time, the cartons are taken out of inventory by the store clerk who, after removing taping or other closure elements, will place the items, one by one, on display fixtures designed to hold them neatly in place for a compact and attractive display. The foregoing merchandising method is commonly referred to as pegwall merchandising. As one will readily appreciate, pegwall merchandising requires handling the shipping carton a number of times and demands a fair amount of set-up time.
The limitations of pegwall merchandising have been recognized and addressed by those involved in merchandising items of this sort. For example, garden tools of the type described may also be shipped in cartons comprising an open display box designed to receive several of these items. The display box, which is dimensioned to tightly confine several of these items, is fitted with a cover which telescopes over the open box and which, in addition to protecting the items during shipment, provides the necessary structural rigidity to permit shipment of the carton by conventional distribution methods.
Typically, once received by the store, these cartons are first placed at the point of purchase on a rack having several horizontal shelves spaced apart so as to permit the carton with its cover to be loaded onto the shelf. Since these racks are normally several feet high, this loading operation often requires the use of a ladder or stepladder. Subsequently, when it becomes necessary to display the items, the carton is moved from the shelf to an area where sufficient vertical clearance permits telescoping the cover off the display box after removal of tape, staples, or the like used to secure the cover to the display box. This other merchandising method is commonly referred to as cut-carton merchandising.
While this second merchandising method alleviates some of the problems associated with pegwall merchandising, (i.e., it reduces inventory handling operations and eliminates the need to load the items individually on the pegwall display), cut-carton merchandising suffers from other shortcomings. More particularly, and as explained in the preceding paragraph, setting up the display will require taking the carton off the shelf and removing for example the tape which secures the cover to the box, to permit removal of the cover. Since these garden tools typically comprise metal blades and hardwood or steel handles, removing the carton from the shelf is preferably done by a store clerk of sufficient physical strength. On the other hand, if the cover is removed from the display box by the stocking clerk, i.e., before placing it on the rack using a ladder or stepladder, placing the display box onto the shelf will be rendered more difficult and dangerous as the structural integrity of the carton will have been compromised by removal of the cover.
In addition to this secondary handling operation, other limitations also typically characterize prior art cut-carton merchandising methods. For example, to facilitate shipment and advantageously display the features of such elongated items, cut-carton display boxes are usually factory loaded with several items disposed on edge resting on a handle, adjacent each other. As the items are purchased, the remaining items will no longer be properly supported between the front and rear panels of the box and will, as a result, tend to slide flat onto the bottom of the display box. This undesirably affects the neatness of the display, impairs viewing of the items by the consumer, and renders its access more difficult.
The various prior art limitations identified in the foregoing thus make it desirable to provide a display shipper for garden tools or the like which can alleviate the problems associated with conventional merchandising methods, i.e., which reduces inventory handling operations and requires minimum set-up time while preserving the benefits of pegwall merchandising.